Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates general to wireless communication systems and more particularly to sponsoring mobile data services in various communication systems.
Description of Related Art
Over The Top applications such as social media services, streaming audio and/or video services, and downloading audio and/or video services consume a substantial amount of data bandwidth. Mobile data service providers (e.g., cellular data service providers) support the Over The Top applications within their network and, for the most part, the applications are transported transparently. The mobile data service providers support the Over The Top applications without specific billing. As such, a mobile device's data plan typically includes a set amount of data consumption per month for a monthly fee regardless of the type of data is being consumed. The data plan further includes an overage fee that applies when the set amount of data consumption in a month is exceeded.
Recently, some entities sponsor mobile devices (e.g., cell phones, tablets, laptop with cellular data service, etc.) to download specific sponsored data content from their websites. Regardless of the location of the mobile device, as it downloads the sponsored data content from the site, the data consumption is not counted towards the mobile device's monthly plan. The sponsoring entity sponsors and pays for the data transfer.
Other services for the mobile devices include proximity based searches, alerts, and/or advertising. For example, when a mobile device is requested to perform a search for nearby coffee shops, the position of the mobile device is determined and a search is conducted for coffee shops within a given distance from the current location of the mobile device.